The Family Home

When a lighting designer teams up with her architect brother to design a house, surprising and wonderful things are bound to happen.

by Eileen Smith Dallabrida

(page 5 of 6)

“My brother didn’t want people to come into the house and immediately see the view,” she says. “With this panel, there’s a build up of the drama that is going to happen.”

Massive glass storefront doors, each weighing 500 pounds, are set in tracks to glide open to a deck. In summer, screen doors allow the breeze to waft into the living room.

Covering a large expanse of glass requires curtains of theatrical proportions. A simple drape in eggplant purple is 18-feet, 3-inches long. It glides closed to make the room a cozy cocoon.

“That’s the standard track you would find at MOMA (the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art),” she says.

A metal staircase is a sculpture, as well as a way to access the loft-like second floor. The stairs were fabricated at Light Action Productions, the performance stage shop where Sander designs lighting. The stairs are made of aluminum plate, one-half inch thick.

“My brother designed the stairs,” she says. “I made sure they were put together correctly.”

Outside, a spiral staircase is a powerful visual statement, a corkscrew counterpoint to the stark geometric lines of the exterior. It’s pragmatic, too, providing access to the rooftop deck.